6 hour journey with 3 under 5

[planningaparty86]

We have a 6 hour journey this week with 3 kids under 5 in the car. We're driving from up north to Portsmouth. We don't need to be there until 7pm but will leave at 9-10am to take our time and ideal stop somewhere on the way down.
I was thinking of perhaps a flip out /trampolining type place for an hour for them to burn some energy.

We'll be driving via Stafford, Birmingham, Oxford and then continuing on south.

Any good suggestions of child friendly stop offs? And otherwise any good suggestions of how we get through the journey would be gratefully received...

I wouldn’t do a trampoline place, it will hype them up and they won’t get any fresh air. I’d prefer running around and a picnic at a national trust place or similar. How many times do you want to stop?

@Handholdplease85 that's actually a very good shout. Ideally just once 3hours in, but more realistically it'll be twice. Once for a picnic and another time to stretch legs and run around I expect...

I wouldn’t do trampolining in case it makes them car sick.

I was going to say the same as PP, if the weather is good run around outside, fresh air will be good for them after being in the car for three hours.

I'd do 3 hours, long stop for lunch and run around and then back in the car for hopefully three hours (but maybe a short service station stop for toilets and leg stretching).

I'd also take them for a run around early morning before you leave.

We used to do a lot of caravan holidays which were about seven hours away with our 3 DC. I found the return journey used to work well leaving a night early after tea time, the journeys were often a bit quicker then and the DC would sleep fir some of the journey and then we’d put them straight to bed .

I'd book accommodation for the night before, and leave at bedtime. They fall asleep in the car as usual and you check in at midnight. Won't be the best night sleep but you're there and can go to playgrounds and nap in the afternoon ready for your 7pm event,

Victoria Park in Stafford has a nice playground, good parking & doesn't involve much of a detour from the motorway. We used it as a stopover this weekend (for a much shorter journey than yours!). There is also a nice little cafe for cakes and drinks, with a big M&S round the corner for picnic food.